If You See Something, Say Something

cramer

Mar 13, 2016 at 6:14am Edited

I'm posting the following, just in case people are not members of their neighborhood associations:

IF YOU SEE SOMETHING SAY SOMETHING!

An incident occurred last week which involved a vehicle; a neighbor observed the vehicle go in and out of more than one driveway but did not call us. The suspects were observed walking up to a home and ringing the bell but no one called us. Finally, the house in question had a low window which was open.

All of the above are what we talk about at Neighborhood Watch meetings. Please take care to secure your belongings. Most importantly, if you see anything (ANYTHING!!) that might make you wonder, look twice, or feel even a bit concerned, PLEASE CALL SOPD. You can dial 9-1-1 or 973-763-3000(dial ext. 0). Don’t worry about whether you are right or not about something being “wrong”. Just call SOPD and let them come and check out the situation.

THANK YOU!

Janine P. Buckner, Resident/Coordinator

Neighborhood Watch Organization

South Orange Village, NJ 07079

When in doubt CALL SOPD: 9-1-1 or 973-763-3000

There’s no harm in having SOPD check things out!

spontaneous

Mar 13, 2016 at 6:41am Edited

I can't tell you how much this annoys me. For example, in our neighborhood one house is unoccupied and has been empty for a few years now. There is a board covering one of the back windows. One neighbor saw the board was removed and believed that she saw someone enter the home through the window. She didn't call the police, she told the neighbors. They didn't call the police either, they just told other neighbors. By the time I heard about it, it was a few days old. Within minutes of hearing about this I called the police (non emergency line obviously since it was no longer a crime in progress) and they investigated and re-secured the window. Had the first neighbor called the police maybe the person(s) entering the vacant home could have been caught, instead the police were stuck investigating a 3+ day old incident.

Another time a neighbor saw two strange men in a different neighbor's yard at 10pm. The resident where the men were is an elderly widow who lives alone. And though she does hire workers for handyman stuff, she always does so during the day, not late at night. Again, didn't call. Though in this case it wasn't the elderly widow who ended up the victim, but rather the person who saw the suspicious people and didn't call the police, as that same night their garage was broken into and bicycles were stolen.

ETA: I'm not in South Orange, I'm in Maplewood. This is a universal problem.

RobinM2

Mar 14, 2016 at 2:47am

I don't know why the people who saw the incidents mentioned above did not call the police, but it should not be about fear of being too suspicious and worrying you might be wrong to call the police. If you notice something like that at all is most likely because something is off and that is what the Police want to hear. They will not arrest anyone merely because you called in and told them about an ambiguous event. What they will do is investigate and if they find probable cause, make an arrest. Our job is to report the facts we see. They want us to do that. It might sound trite, but we are their eyes and ears. If you are debating whether to call at all, it means your brain processed something off, but did it so fast because the brain saw it as a dangerous situation. A fearful gut feeling, to paraphrase a security expert, is a gift, the gift of fear. Let the police sort out the why, that is their job.